School’s Out, by Michael Davis – Straight No Chaser #132
September 4, 2009 Michael Davis 9 Comments
President Obama is going top talk directly to school kids next week. The message is to take responsibility for your actions and to do the best you can in school.
The White House does something that even my liberal ass thought was a bonehead move- that is distributing ‘lesson plans’ to school where they ask students to answer such questions as “How can you help President Obama?”
People (READ: GOP) are losing their goddamn minds.
How dare the President Of The United States talk directly to their kids? How dare he ask for their help? This MUST be an attempt by THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES to brainwash kids into thinking like he does.
Jesus.
I mean Jesus.
Let’s say that this is an attempt to sway young minds into his way of thinking. Let’s say that THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES is trying his best to influence YOUR kids.
How’s this for a solution… BE A PARENT.
I can’t imagine that there are people in the United States Of America who are afraid of what THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES is going to say to their kids. These are the same people who let their kids do whatever the fuck they want, no matter HOW stupid but they see a problem with THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES telling their kids to do well in school.
Guess what-if you don’t like what the THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES says to your kids be a parent and discuss it OR don’t let them watch.
That’s the ticket -tell them not watch!
Maybe JUST maybe they will be SO SHOCKED that you are finally trying to protect them from something-even if it’s THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES that they will listen.
Martha Thomases
September 4, 2009 - 6:32 am
Perhaps the Republicans would prefer if, instead of speaking his own mind and his own thoughts and his own opinions, Obama instead read from the literary stylings of MY PET GOAT.
Vinnie Bartilucci
September 4, 2009 - 6:45 am
Politics has become the world’s biggest and most expensive game of “GotchaBack”. After eight years of non-stop attack upon “their” President, the Conservicans are gonna give back in sp…with interest.
The rule has become “Attack EVERYTHING the competing party does. Allow NO successes” If The Other Guy gets something done, they score a point with the voters, and your only hope is that it falls apart (or you can successfully MAKE it fall apart) so you can get the point back on the conversion.
Politics is not a competitive sport. It’s a cooperative endeavor. Hopefully, this will be remembered someday.
Obama has been pilloried about damn near everything he’s done since the moment they finished counting the votes. They claimed a massive conspiracy over the DOG he got. People were claiming he “lied” to us about its origins, and it was another case of political cronyism and back-door dealing. To quote Zappa, “This is a dog we’re talkin’ about now…”
I am amazed no one complained about his choice of beverages at the beer summit. He could, after all, have had everybody drink the SAME beer, instead of the SHAMEFUL waste of making the American people buy THREE six-packs and only drink one out of each one. He’s such a lazy waster, he probably didn’t FINISH his beer.
Sotomayor was nominated to her former bench by Bush the Elder. But somehow when Obama decides she’s good at her job, she’s IMMEDIATELY a bad idea. He could have nomated George Bush, and they’d be honor bound to find fault in the choice.
So are you really surprised that somehow the idea of the President of the United States talking to school kids would be compared to the Red Brigade and Nazi indoctrination?
Besides, I’m not surprised people would fear the President would hold more sway over their kids than they do. After all, they also claim their little friends, Ronald McDonald and Judas Priest have more control in their kids’ behavior than they do. And the President has a theme song. How can they possibly compete?
Linda Gold
September 4, 2009 - 7:43 am
I do believe this country has gone insane.
Alan Coil
September 4, 2009 - 8:35 am
The right is afraid Obama is going to change their kids into Negroes.
Marc Alan Fishman
September 4, 2009 - 9:14 am
This is as silly as those “Jews” needing days off for their supposed “Holidays”. I got the feeling they all just congregate to count their money.
This comment has been submitted and approved by the GOP.
MOTU
September 4, 2009 - 11:35 am
You know if the GOP would put this kind of vigor into something other than ‘hate’ their ranks would not be shrinking as fast as a porn star in a cold shower.
R. Maheras
September 4, 2009 - 1:15 pm
Frankly, I find the whole idea kind of creepy. This isn’t just a simple PSA-type deal where the president exhorts kids to do their best and stay in school.
Regardless of how innocuous some of you may be trying to make this sound, this is political indoctrination.
And if it is so innocent, why is it then that no president ever did anything remotely like this when I went to school, or when my kids went to school?
And before you all chide the Republicans for overreacting regarding this odd initiative, ask yourself this: If George Bush had done the exact same thing, would you have also thought it was no big deal?
Regarding the argument, “the hard core right overreacts about everything this administration does,” the fact is, the hard core left did the same thing when Bush was president.
Frankly, I find the tactics annoying regardless of which side is doing the incessant witch-hunting.
Mike Gold
September 4, 2009 - 1:56 pm
Russ, I love you like a brother but calling Obama’s act of talking directly to the nation’s schoolchildren “Indoctrination” is simply beyond the bend. And if George Bush did it, I would have responded to what he said — if there was anything to respond to — and not try to preempt him before he said anything. It’s that First Amendment thing, where it’s perfectly okay to shout fire in a crowded theater if there is, indeed, a fire. As Michael said, if parents don’t like what the president said they can actually be PARENTS. They get to indoctrinate their kids around the clock; if they don’t like what they hear they could and should explain why to their kids.
As for why Eisenhower didn’t do this when we were kids… well, my friend, there wasn’t all that much television around when we were kids. Not all markets had TV in the mid-50s. There was no CCTV for communities that couldn’t get a signal, and there were places even in Chicago and New York where you couldn’t get an acceptable signal. There was no videotape or satellites to broadcast an image around the nation and the coaxial cable was barely in its infancy. Barely.
However, when Kennedy was inaugurated in 1961, our school did have a television set and we clustered around it for live coverage of what, to us, was a historical event. Sadly, the same thing was true in November 1963. I like the idea of EVERY president talking to our kids during the first year of their administration. Kill Obama’s speech and the next time your guy gets in office he won’t be able to do it either.
And the fear-mongering that’s going on is bipartisan, but after a solid month of “death panels”, “he’s going to kill your grandma”, :he’s going to kill your autistic child”, “Nazism and Communism are the same”, “national health care is Communist” (you know, just like our socialized Interstate Highway system), and “Obama is a socialist”, I gotta tell you: the Republican Party has been reduced to a handful of complete lunatics.
And now they want to run Cheney in 2012? Awesome. To whom do I write my check?
R. Maheras
September 4, 2009 - 2:30 pm
When I went to school, the communication tool of choice was the film projector. I don’t know how many films I saw over the years, but it was a lot. In any case, I never watched any films where the President Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson or Nixon gave me “assignments” based on some prepared lesson plan supplied to my teachers. The same goes for my daughters, who attended schools from about 1985 until about 2002. Still no videos/TV programs were sent to them from Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, or Bush II, asking for “help.”
Like I said, if this was just a PSA message, I wouldn’t have thought twice about it. But lesson plans and interactive assignments? Sorry, Mike… to me that’s one step beyond. We’re in creepy territory with this deal.
R. Maheras
September 4, 2009 - 2:39 pm
Cheney in 2012? If the Republicans are serious, then they are conceding the presidential election. That’d be like when the Illinois Republican Party brought in carpetbagger Alan Keyes in 2004 to run against Obama for the Senate. No one in their right mind believed Keyes could win — he was just a sacrificial lamb.
Martha Thomases
September 4, 2009 - 2:46 pm
@Russ: President George H. W. Bush addressed school children in class via television, telling them to say “No” to drugs.
Linda Gold
September 4, 2009 - 3:06 pm
As I said above, after reading many comments on this subject other places on line, I believe America has had a pyschotic breakdown. I never heard any one propose before that a President of the US was going to indoctrinate our children by simply talking to them aboutgood grades or in fact by talking to them about anything else. Even during the worst days of the civil rights movement most people seemed to have some grounding in the real world. If this is where we are, we are done. It’s over folks. Turn out the lights when you leave ’cause I’m ready to look for a new place to live where people at least have some grasp on reality. It’s obviously no longer here.
R. Maheras
September 4, 2009 - 4:14 pm
I remember the Bush anti-drug message, but like I said… that was just a public service announcement.
This thing, from what I’ve read so far, is fundamentally different.
Alan Coil
September 4, 2009 - 4:25 pm
The speech is reported to be online. Perhaps if one read it, one might have a more informed opinion about the speech.
_______________________
I’m surprised the Republicans didn’t protest polio shots.
Linda Gold
September 4, 2009 - 4:28 pm
I just read that the speech will be posted on line by the White House on Monday so people can review it before hand and I was too young to be aware but it wouldn’t surprise me if the Republicans protested polio shots. They sure were scared of that commie plot called floride in the water.
MOTU
September 4, 2009 - 5:08 pm
POLIO SHOTS???? NOOOOOOO WAY!!
Getting Polio shots for our kids is just another left wing attempt to get them HOOKED on needles!!
The GOP
GOFFY OLD PEOPLE
R. Maheras
September 4, 2009 - 6:01 pm
Alan Coil wrote: “The speech is reported to be online. Perhaps if one read it, one might have a more informed opinion about the speech.”
I haven’t seen a transcript, but I’d be surprised if anything other than a rough working draft existed at this point — a draft that can be gutted and re-worked, if necessary. As someone who has worked on speeches for government officials in the past, I think it’s very likely that Obama’s staff will be tweaking the speech through this weekend.
And it’s not so much the speech anyway, as it is some of the ancilliary, interactive assignment activities the White House added to the mix. If I were advising Obama, I would have nixed any extras that could have been perceived as indoctrination material. They weren’t necessary, they are a distraction, and they the dilute the power of his speech.
Steve Atkins
September 5, 2009 - 1:19 am
Reagan wouldn’t have spoken to the children (despite that whole “Mommy” thing of his).
He would have let knowledge “trickle down” from those who have it.
George H.W. Bush was simply “not gonna do it.”
Clinton was…well…”busy.”
George W. Bush wouldn’t have spoken to the children because they were all better at reading, writing, and speaking than he was during his entire vacatio…I mean, presidency.
And we all know how he feels about those elitists who know how to read and write.
As for…
Ike, as Mike Gold pointed out, didn’t have the media that we have today.
…Besides, what kid is going to listen to a president who looked like Elmer Fudd?
Kennedy was…well…”busy.”
I don’t think ANYBODY REALLY gave a dead moose’s last bowel movement WHAT LBJ OR Tricky Dick had to say for any meaningful length of time.
“Cheney in 2012?” Wow. The nation’s first shotgun inauguration.
However, his little “hunting accident” DID have ONE good outcome.
It let me know that I was no longer on MY Earth. I’m on Earth 5.0 or something.
I WOULD care about Obama talking to the children, but I haven’t really paid much attention to ANY president in the last few years.
You know. “Cause I’m….well…”busy.”
Steve
Mike Gold
September 5, 2009 - 7:13 pm
Yeah, I don’t feel like I’m on my Earth either. I love you shotgun inauguration line; absolutely great.
It was pointed out to me that both Reagan and Bush 1 did address the nation’s schoolchildren. Didn’t see the Left bitch about it.
R. Maheras
September 5, 2009 - 8:00 pm
Actually, they did — at least in the case of George H.W. Bush’s speech in 1991. Gephardt and other Democratic members of Congress railed that Bush’s speech was “paid political advertising” — and it wasn’t even an election year. And unlike Obama, Bush the First had no interactive, ancilliary activities for the kids to address their “leader.” It was just a straight speech that was pretty much a PSA.
For the record, I did not vote for Bush in 1992.
Linda Gold
September 5, 2009 - 8:21 pm
Well, maybe Bush didn’t but Regan made exactly the same request that the children write letters to him telling “how they could help the President” and I didn’t decide that he was trying to turn my daughter into an objectivist and feel the need to run screaming to the school board about indocrination of supply side economics and trickle down theory. You people need to calm down. No one is trying to hypno-toad your children into little Manchurian candidates.
Mike Gold
September 6, 2009 - 5:57 am
Russ: The president isn’t a “leader”? Bush 1 didn’t go interactive for the same reason FDR didn’t do his fireside chats on television. And Gephardt et al saying the speech was paid political advertising is not the same as claiming Bush 1 was trying to hypnotize our nation’s schoolchildren and organizing boycotts.
Linda: The Hypno-Toad is busy working for the Religious Right. Under contract, I believe.
R. Maheras
September 6, 2009 - 6:50 am
Actually, I am pretty calm about the whole deal. And I really don’t blame Obama directly for some of these recent dumb moves. I blame his staffers. They do not seem to be doing their homework, and they seem to be surprisingly ignorant of the possible repercussions of their suggested advice to the president. It makes me wonder if the president — to his detriment — has surrounded himself with yes-men and yes-women.
If I am in a leadership position, I want all angles and viewpoints about everything I have to make decisions about. If all a leader has around him/her are like-minded toadies, or people who are afraid to dissent or question, then why does that leader even need advisors to help with the decision-making process in the first place?
One of my biggest gripes with the Bush II administration was that they seemed insular and aloof in their activities. At times they even seemed arrogantly ignorant. Obama’s administration, whether he knows it or not, is making the same mistake.
Whether his staffers like it or not, Obama is not just the president of hard-core Democrats… he is president of all Americans. And while Obama may never win over hard-core Republicans, if he loses the support of the middle, he’s screwed.
Mike Gold
September 6, 2009 - 8:52 am
Yep. I largely concur, Russ. We differ here in that I think Obama is so committed to consensus building that he doesn’t know when there’s no consensus to build, as in heath care. Part of being a leader is knowing when to play hardball.
Or, in Obama’s case, 16″ softball. The kind real men play!
Martha Thomases
September 7, 2009 - 11:39 am
FY, here’s a link to the speech:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/MediaResources/PreparedSchoolRemarks/
R. Maheras
September 7, 2009 - 10:54 pm
Terrific, even-handed speech. I have no major beef with it.
It stands perfectly well all by itself, and never needed any ancilliary “help our leader” activities or White House-directed lesson plans. If someone had turned off that other stuff in the planning stage, I doubt there would have been much of a flap at all, and we would have never had this discussion.
Martha Thomases
September 8, 2009 - 5:58 am
@Russ: It’s accepted educational practice in this country to supply lesson plans. When I worked at DC Comics, I worked on a literacy program, using the !mpact comics (hi, Mike!). We created a lesson plan. We weren’t indoctrinating anyone (although we would be thrilled if the kids reading the comics liked them enough to become fans). We were doing what the schools wanted us to do.
R. Maheras
September 8, 2009 - 7:58 am
I understand, Martha. But there is a fundamental difference between a private company’s lesson plan and that of a politically-charged position like Obama’s (and even then, a private organization’s material should be carefully screened for hidden political agendas).
Historically, Americans don’t like the big brother stuff, and when Obama’s speech morphed into an interactive exercise, it crossed the line of political uncomfortability. And, as I said, if Obama had not crossed that line, we probably would not be having this conversation.
Mike Gold
September 8, 2009 - 10:16 am
It really bothers me when people speak for all Americans. It overwhelmingly bothers me when political parties — particularly the one out of power — imply THEY and they alone speak for all Americans.
And we all know that the Right would be bitching about Obama’s speech even if there were no “lesson plan.” The right bitches about Obama’s everything. His choice of toilet paper. Yes, Barack Obama uses SOCIALIST toilet paper!
Damn, Barack should just get it over with and bleach his skin and chop his nose off.
Alan Coil
September 8, 2009 - 11:22 am
“…and even then, a private organization’s material should be carefully screened for hidden political agendas.”
Tell that to Texas, which is about to incorporate Intelligent Design, a.k.a. Intentional Deception, into its school books, books provided, by the way, by Neil Bush’s company. So Texas is about to become the first official Republican State of the New Republic of Christ.
MOTU
September 8, 2009 - 2:59 pm
Sooooooooooo-the speech was just a speech from THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES giving students a pep talk.
I can see the headline now from the GOP:
OBAMA WANTS KIDS TO GET HIGH ON A NEW DRUG CALLED ‘PEP!’